Today we'll stay on with the topic of pain and dysfunction from the day before. Lets talk soft tissue injuries in the form of strains and pulls instead of the overuse joint pain we discussed earlier.
Again sticking to the concept, the problem isn't where it always seems. Let's talk about soft tissue injuries now such as a quad, or hamstring pull. Most would like to ice the problem and stretch the effected area, or they may believe the area isn't strong enough. Many trainers first thought aside from icing the strained area is to stretch it. Generally, not a great idea. There is dysfunction going on somewhere and the first place to look is in the synergists with any muscle strain. The glutes are synergists to the hamstrings. Glute dysfunction causes the hamstrings to pick up slack and in turn work harder than they should have to. Hence, it's a good idea to train the glutes. We do this by activation work in the warmup. First we want to get them firing. Then we follow with our squats, lunges, RDL's, etc. Once activated they can produce force and power in our lower body movements and learn to work for us again.
I imagine his glutes are firing pretty efficiently
Quad strains generally means what? Stretch the quads and hip flexors! Wrong again! What are the synergists to the rectus femoris and hip flexion. It's the hip flexors and specifically the psaos major. Again dysfunction in the synergist causes injury in the prime movers. The quads pick up the slack in hip flexion that is lost with hip flexor dysfunction.
Remember, find the dysfunction in their movement. Then you can solve the problem, not just cover up an injury waiting to happen again.